Pages

.

Adoption Alert: Haiti

LMI Admin | Wednesday, June 29, 2011 | 1 Comment
Alert: Pursuing Independent Adoptions without Licensed Agencies Increases Risks of Delays and Fraud

The Department of State has seen a recent increase in U.S. citizens seeking to pursue adoptions in Haiti through independent agents instead of licensed adoption providers. While these “private” adoptions are currently permissible in Haiti, prospective adoptive parents should be aware of the risks associated with not utilizing experienced, licensed agencies. Non-licensed facilitators may lack experience in navigating the complex Haitian adoption process, and this could lead to delays and critical mistakes in processing the case. Haitian facilitators may also not be familiar with U.S. immigration law governing intercountry adoption processing. Prospective adoptive parents pursuing an independent adoption may place their trust in private facilitators engaging in unethical or illegal practices in Haiti. The Department strongly encourages prospective adoptive parents adopting from Haiti to research U.S. immigration laws and Haitian adoption procedures through the use of a reputable, licensed agency or experienced facilitator. For more information about intercountry adoption in Haiti, please visit our website

LMI Newsletter

Anne Bentley | Tuesday, June 14, 2011 | 0 Comments
Our latest newsletter with updates on all of the countries we work in is available here.

Kazakhstan Adoption Update

LMI Admin | Thursday, June 02, 2011 | 0 Comments
We got this news from Kazakhstan this morning and wanted to share with you!

The new law on Marriage and Family was finally approved by Parliament (Mazhilis). The Next step will be approval of the law by Senate. Very good news and means for us that Kaz is one step close to starting the Hague Accreditation process.

Adoption Notice: Ethiopia

LMI Admin | Thursday, June 02, 2011 | 0 Comments
Update on adoption case processing by MOWCYA in Ethiopia

The U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia has received information from the Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs indicating that processing of cases that received a court summons prior to March 8, 2011 is still ongoing. This exceeds their estimated 15-20 days to expeditiously process this caseload, as indicated in our April 5 notice. The Embassy also understands that processing of cases with court summons after March 8 is proceeding at 5 cases per day, and there is no indication that these numbers will increase in the short term.

Prospective Adoptive Parents and parents awaiting final approval of their match from the Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs are cautioned to anticipate continued and considerable delays and are encouraged to remain in contact with their agency for updates to their case.

Please continue to monitor http://adoption.state.gov/ for updated information as it becomes available.